


Helping Anna Cope

by ExhaustedSunflower



Series: There is a reason for every little thing we do [4]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Rape/Non-con Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:27:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25234654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExhaustedSunflower/pseuds/ExhaustedSunflower
Summary: Anna finds herself unable to keep her head up sometimes. But sometimes, she’s starting to realize, it’s okay to be down.
Series: There is a reason for every little thing we do [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814929
Comments: 56
Kudos: 71





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> And here we have Anna’s section of the series! Anna is underrated and used as a prop all the time and I will not stand by it!
> 
> Takes place after Cathy’s bit, (which is not posted yet, don’t be confused) which is why she knows about Henrat threatening to kill Cathy.

Anna was sure that she could handle this on her own. It’s not even that bad, nothing harmful at all. Surely she can just deal with it, she thought. 

She should have known better.

-

“Anna! Catch!” 

She looks up and towards the direction she heard her name from just in time to see a remote flying her way. She immediately puts her hands up and catches it, and looks at the person who threw it at her. Anne.

Anne was running from Kitty, but now Kitty’s sights are set on Anna, no, wait, she’s looking at the remote. She holds the remote out in the opposite direction of Kitty, just out of the girls reach as she grabs for it.

“What’s this all about?” She asks. She knows the answer, but she wants to torment Kitty a little bit.

“My show is about to come on and I’m gonna  _ miss _ it if you don’t give me that remote right now!”

“Which show is this again?”

“You know what show!” She does, but she’s not gonna tell Kitty that. She makes eye contact with Anne, still holding the remote out of Kitty’s reach. Anne has an amused smile on her face and she‘s laughing, clearly she’s happy Anna joined in on her antics.

“Hm, you’ll have to remind me. I can't seem to remember.” She keeps feigning her ignorance. Kitty gives an aggravated huff, and lunges for the remote again. Anna moves it out of the way just in time. 

“What on earth could be so important that you’re acting like this?” The question is asked in mock innocence, Anne is cackling from behind Kitty.

“ _ Steven Universe! _ ” Kitty informs her forcefully.

This fine Monday morning a new episode of Steven Universe is airing, and Kitty hasn’t stopped talking about it all week. She’d made them promise to keep the house quiet and in order while she focuses on it, and make sure she has control of the TV on the hour it starts. It would start at nine thirty AM, and as of right now it is nine twenty seven. Instead of torturing the girl anymore, she relinquishes the remote and watches Kitty run into the living room.

“I’m gonna go watch it with her, wanna join?” 

She looks at Anne, who is watching her cousin fondly. “Yeah, I’m gonna go grab something, I’ll be right down.”

She makes her way up to her room to grab her blanket. It’s her favorite blanket in the whole house. Truthfully, Anna gets very homesick, and something about the red wool blanket just feels so comforting. She walks over to her bed, where she normally keeps it folded at the bottom, only to see that it's not there. There’s a brief wave of panic that she shakes off, because it probably fell under her bed. She checks, and it's not there. No? Okay, then maybe between her bed and that wall. Not there either. The closet? She goes through an increasingly long list of places she could have put it, before coming to the final conclusion that her blanket is not here.

Anna bites her lip, maybe it’s downstairs somewhere. She shouldn’t panic just yet. And it's just a blanket, she shouldn’t get worked up over it. Instead of freaking out, she calmly goes downstairs and meets up with Anne in the living room. She’s missed the beginning of the episode, but she doesn’t mind. Her mind is rather occupied anyway. She worries about her blanket the entire time instead of focusing.

As the episode ends she gets up to get a drink from the kitchen; she passes by Jane, who is on her way out of the laundry room. 

“Hey Jane?” The blonde looks at Anna, and Anna takes a moment to be glad that they’d had the conversation that made them agree to be friends. It’d been a private conversation, with a few tears, but they came out of it better. She only has time to appreciate their friendship for a moment though, as her mind is filled with worry again. 

“Have you seen my blanket around anywhere?”

“No I haven’t. Why, have you lost it?”

“I don’t think it's  _ lost _ , just maybe misplaced.”

Jane hums, “Alright, I’ll keep an eye out for it then.” Anna smiles and thanks her, then watches her leave with her load of laundry in hand. Maybe it is lost. Maybe she’ll never see it again. Much like her home.

She shakes the thought away immediately. Now is not the time for her homesickness to take ahold of her, she needs a distraction. Anna walks, oh so calmly and held together, into the kitchen. She is met with an incredible sight.

Catalina de Aragon, absolutely covered in a batter of some kind, standing in the middle of the kitchen looking at the mixer absolutely affronted. Cathy is standing next to her, biting her lip. She’s trying very hard not to laugh at her godmother, Anna does not have the same inhibitions. She immediately starts laughing, in turn Cathy lets out a wheezing noise, which makes it so much funnier, so Anna laughs even harder. 

“Oh yes, laugh at my misfortune why don’t you. Thank you for offering your help, you two. I now know who to call next time I’m in this situation.” Catalina deadpans sarcastically, making them laugh even harder. At this point Kitty has joined them in the kitchen, she’s laughing too, but she immediately walks over to help.

“What happened?” She asks as she giggles. She gives Catalina a few napkins to get some (Cake?) batter off of herself. Then she goes over to the mixer to look for an answer.

“The mixer broke, and I’m never baking again.” Catalina grumbles out. She starts wiping her face off, then moves to her arms.

Cathy snorts, and Lina looks at her with a glare. “Kitty you’re my favorite.”

Cathy’s eyes widen, “Hey! I thought you said you don’t have favorites!” Kitty and Cathy then proceed to fight for the right to be Catalina’s favorite child.

“Alright, as much as I enjoy watching you two pester Mama Lina, have any of you seen my blanket?” Her interruption causes them all to fully flush red, Anna would have found it funny if she wasn’t so worried.

They all, still blushing, shake their heads. None of them have seen her blanket around recently. She accepts their answer, and decides to just go about her day as usual. It’ll pop up eventually, it has to. There’s nowhere else it could have gone, it must at the very least still be in the house. As she tries to go about her day though, she becomes more and more restless. So she decides to try and distract herself.

First Anna cleans the study, it can get quite messy in there if they don’t pay attention to it. When she’s done and the room is completely spotless, she moves on to the living room. She vacuums the floor, cleans the coffee table, then the side tables, then cleans the tv screen. She even fluffs the pillows. Then she goes to the next room, the dining room is easy, she sweeps and cleans the table. (She skips the kitchen because Kitty and Cathy are cleaning there while Lina showers.) When Anna runs out of surfaces to clean downstairs, she cleans the downstairs bathroom, which is normally Anne’s job, and then moves to the windows. When she’s done, every window shines; they haven’t looked this good since they first came back to life, she notes. 

Eventually though, she runs out of things to clean. This is where the thoughts she’s been pushing out work their way back in. Anna goes up to her room as soon as she feels this, she knows she can’t tell the others about this. It’s just a blanket! Nothing that actually is harmful to her has happened. She should not be spiraling over a blanket.

But that's what is happening.

She lays on her bed with no blanket, not even her regular quilt, and feels cold. She knows she shouldn’t feel cold, logically it makes no sense. The house is warm, there’s heat coming through every vent right now. And yet she feels icy as she lays in bed thinking. Her blanket reminds her of home, and anything that does that is welcome to Anna. When she married Henry in her first life, she left everything she knew behind, besides her sister Amalia, who was also sent for the king. But she’d never gone back. Amalia and her had their own lives, so the one familiar person to her still was not around. Anna had a hard time adjusting to life in England. As queen she was meant to be regal and refined, but to an English standard. She’d never been to England before then, she didn’t even know english! There was immense pressure too, from her family, to be a good peace token, and from her husband to be a good wife. The perfect wife. 

She remembers, in the very early stages of their short marriage, finding out that Henry was not happy with her. It was absolutely terrifying to hear. This man had one of his wives  _ killed, beheaded _ , because he wasn’t satisfied with her. Not only that, he’d slandered her name to the world, imagine what would happen to her family, to her sister, if she followed Anne Boleyn’s path. She could also be isolated for the rest of her life like the first. And that should have scared her more than it did, but in a way she was already quite isolated. She’d never see her family again, never see her home or the people she knew. Her friends were long gone, people she used to know already. Anna was already alone, and alone as the wife of a wife killer, at that.

She’d already known she was no Jane Seymour, the woman’s portraits were still up as Anna was queen, and remained up well after. She didn’t expect to live up to her predecessor's name, she just wanted to be good at what she came there to do. And the moment she arrived she screwed it up. Henry had dressed up as a peasant and tried to kiss her, like the old English fairy tales, but Anna had never heard the tales, and didn’t know what Henry looked like. She’d panicked, it wasn’t really her fault, but the man made his mind up then and there. He couldn’t be the husband of a woman who finds him repulsive, so to save his ego he’d deemed her undesirable and divorced her a few months later. In order to save her head, and to keep herself in his good graces, she’d agreed to it immediately and gotten herself a pretty good deal.

The king's esteemed sister, the richest and most important woman in England. Just as isolated as the first divorcee, but a lot less hurt by the rejection. She lived a long, satisfying life after that, but she lived it by herself, so was it worth it? Anna doesn’t want to think about the answer. 

-

Eventually, lunch time comes around. Meaning she has to face the others, which she  _ really _ doesn’t feel like doing right now. Still spiralling, Anna sits up in bed. 

_ Maybe they won’t even miss me if I don’t come down. _

She knows this is unlikely, Kitty said she was trying something new today. Some chicken BBQ salad she found online. Said it was the perfect lunch food. But still, Anna doesn’t want to go downstairs while her thoughts are this messy. She would undoubtedly say something she doesn’t mean to and cause unnecessary concern; they shouldn’t worry about her. If anything, she’s the survivor. She’d been through the least in her first life. What happened to her that hasn’t happened ten times worse for the others?

She married a known wife killer? So did three of the others. He’d killed and threatened to kill two of the three.

Left her home and never saw her family again? Catalina went through that at fifteen! Her first husband died and she was imprisoned until she could marry again. Then her second husband abused her for twenty seven years then tossed her into solitude like she was nothing. She’d lost her only surviving child at that. Catalina’s isolation was so much worse than Anna’s.

Henry told the world she was ugly? He told the world Anne and Kitty were whores and killed them, it could have been worse.

She had to befriend this man to maintain her life? The others had to  _ deal with him _ , Anna barely ever saw him besides her visits, she’d barely been married to him at all. If you spoke to the pope at the time he’d say it wasn’t even a real marriage.

She was forced into marrying him in the first place? Laughable. The others had worse circumstances regarding that too, you can’t say no to the king.

Just as she begins to spiral even more, there’s a knock on the door. Must be Kitty, Anna thinks. 

“I’ll be down in a sec, Kit.”

Her door opens just a crack, “Actually, it’s me.” Anna looks up to see none other than Jane Seymour standing in her doorway. She has a nice gift box in her hand. Anna smiles at her as best she can and invites her in. 

“What’s up, Jane?”

“I have something for you, to make up for being so rude to you when we first came back. I do hope you won’t be too cross with me though.” Anna shakes her head.

“It’s fine, you were uncomfortable, I’m not mad.” She reassures the woman, but she grows confused when Jane shakes her head back.

“No, I mean- Well, I know you’ve already forgiven me for that. It’s just, this might upset you a bit. I’m afraid I've lied to you today.”

Anna’s brows furrow, she’s ready to ask what on earth she could have lied to her about, when Jane shoves the gift box into Anna’s hands.

“Open it before you answer! I promise it's not a bad thing! And if you’re really upset I can try to make it up to you!” She says nervously. Anna looks at Jane, then down at the box. She decides to comply and takes the top off. Inside, folded neatly, she sees a blanket. 

Her red blanket.

Except, at the top area of the folded blanket, she sees that her name is embroidered into the corner, along with a cute little crown.

“I also washed it for you. I’m sorry if you don't like it-“

“Thank you.” Anna says, her voice cracks, betraying her head screaming not to cry.

Jane looks at Anna for any sign of anger over her lie, then when she sees none she scoots closer to Anna.

“Are you okay?” Jane softly asks. To both of their horrors, Anna then starts to cry.

They’re a bit late to lunch that afternoon, and Kitty will wonder why forever, because neither Anna nor Jane want to tell the girl that Anna had a full on breakdown in front of a panicking but trying her best Jane. Anna spills her inner turmoil, and Jane gets some practice in comforting her friend. They both have a silent agreement that they’ll watch out for each other from that point on, though.


	2. Chapter 2

The day had been rather mind numbingly boring. All day Anna and other queens, with nothing better to do than just lazing about the house, were mainly watching TV or napping. Anna made herself a semi permanent spot on the love seat with her blanket. Only getting up to use the bathroom or get a snack. She’s joined in the living room with the C(K)atherine’s. All of them are cuddled onto the big couch, though they’re only taking up a quarter of the space on the couch made for three. It’s a change, because Catalina normally takes the armchair, preferring to sit alone and Not Be Touched, as she puts it. But today is one of Lina’s bad days, and her two surrogate daughters basically dragged her to the couch for cuddles the moment they found out. Catalina hadn’t put up much of a fight though.

Anne is in the kitchen currently grabbing the wine; it’s Friday, that means it’s wine and trauma night. Jane is getting the snacks tonight, because last time Kitty had gotten the snacks and  _ gushers just don’t go with wine, Kitty.  _ Or so Jane said, Anna wasn’t too picky about it. 

“Alright! Three bottles should be enough, right?” Anne asks as she walks into the room, barely having a grasp on three wine bottles. 

“Three is  _ more _ than enough, Anne.” Jane follows her in with a bowl filled with various snack foods, and a tray holding six wine glasses. Her tone clearly means put the third bottle away, but Anne studiously ignores her cousin in favor of sitting in the armchair and opening the first bottle to start pouring.

If it's out it's going to be opened, that's just how it goes. They’re going to get drunk tonight. They all reach over to the table Jane has set the items on and grab a glass. (Well, Catalina can’t reach the table, because she’s got a Kitty in her lap and Cathy cuddled up to her side. Kitty hands her a glass after letting Anne pour some wine in, then grabs her own.) After they all have wine in hand, Anna speaks up.

“I’d like to go first tonight,” she declares. They watch as she takes a sip of her wine before continuing. “Thank you Jane for sprucing up my blanket, but my blanket being missing caused some inner turmoil, so please no one ever steal my blanket again. Even for nice gestures.” Anna states. Being frank about this stuff normally makes it easier to deal with, and if she goes first she is sober enough not to share too much. Jane blushes a bit and apologizes, sorry for causing Anna to be in the state she found her in.

“What kind of turmoil?”

She turns her head at that. The question, ever so shy, came from Cathy. Cathy, the woman who barely spoke at all when they came back. Cathy, the one who thrives off of being helpful almost to the point of wearing herself thin enough to break. She only just recently started gathering the courage to ask these types of questions, and after what they’d learned about her past life, she could see why. (Anna had known to an extent what Henry had done to the woman, but had no idea that he’d gone as far as to issue an execution order. Her blood boils thinking about it.) Anna doesn’t want to make her close back up, the poor thing already looks like she’d rather not have spoken at all.

“I was thinking about my past life, the blanket gives me comfort. I’m not sure why.” Anna says. She fiddles with the hem of her blanket as she speaks of it, hoping that her answer will suffice enough to warrant a change of topic. It doesn’t.

Catalina then speaks up, “That’s alright, we all have things that bring us comfort when we need it. What kind of things do you think about that you’d need comfort over?” The question is asked in an innocent tone, but she knows Catalina’s been waiting to get her to open up. The eldest queen is always saying that what Anna went through in her past life is more than valid trauma. She wonders if she’s been discussing this with Kitty, trying to get Anna to open up. Kitty has tried on multiple occasions to get Anna to show her emotions to the others, and Anna complies most of the time. But bit by bit, not everything needs to be addressed at once.

Anna takes a long drink from her glass, a movement that does not go unnoticed by the others.

“I miss my home, and my siblings.” She says honestly. That's not all, but like she said before, one thing at a time. Anne nods as if she fully understands where she’s coming from.

“I’ll drink to that!” She exclaims, then completely downs the rest of her drink. Catalina rolls her eyes at the woman, then after a moment nods in agreement. 

“Same, actually.” She says, she takes a sip though, unlike Anne who is now pouring herself another glass of wine.

“Tell us about your home! I wanna hear kid Anna stories!” Kitty demands, Anna takes a moment to think, then decides on one.

“Alright, I’ve got a story you’ll like.” She shifts in her seat to get more comfortable, “When I was a child, my parents were very strict. They loved me, don’t get me wrong, but they had a very ideal way for me to behave growing up. I was provided with tutors for many different subjects, I was to practice religious activities for hours a day. There was quiet time, and there was time for discussion. I was to know the difference by the tone of the room, that sort of thing.” She has everyone’s attention. Is this what Catalina sees as she tells her stories? Just rapt eyes on her? Anna doesn’t mind attention, but it’s a little distracting.

“My older sister, Sibylle, was very okay with the rules set out for us. She followed them completely, no issues whatsoever. My sister Amalia, on the other hand, was very artistic. Something mother and father did not appreciate, let me tell you. Dancing, singing, drawing, anything in that vein, was forbidden among us.  _ ‘Dancing doesn’t lead countries, dearest girl’,  _ my father used to say. At the time of this story though, I was like fourteen. And Amalia decided, while my father was away, that she was going to dance everywhere she went. Just, like, the most ridiculous dancing you could ever see, any time she had to move anywhere. I thought it was hilarious, Sibylle, not so much. Sibylle got so mad that she started yelling, and then my mother came into the room.” She said that last part dramatically for effect. Anna takes a pause to pour herself more wine.

“What did your mother do?” Jane asks. She seems incredibly interested in the answer too, so Anna continues.

“Well, she berated Sibylle, for yelling. Because yelling is ‘Not Lady Like and Forbidden In This Household Young Lady’. Then she turned to me and asked what happened. I had two options here. I could rat out Amalia and get her in trouble for doing something we’re specifically never to do, or I could tell my mother that Sibylle was trying to get Amalia in trouble by yelling as if she’d seen her do something wrong.”

“I don’t think that second option would have even crossed my mind if in that situation.” Cathy remarks.

“As the middle child it’s easy to think of plots,” Anna sidenotes, then continues her story, “So, two options, right? I clearly go with option two. And Sibylle gets in trouble for setting Amalia up, which makes her mad at me. But she was so easy to wind up, guys, seriously. So after my mother left the room, I joined Amalia in dancing everywhere we went. We even hummed constantly, just to annoy Sibylle.”

“Did Sibylle yell at you?” Kitty questions. Anna shakes her head.

“She ignored us completely for days before my father came home, then we did it only when he wasn’t around. Each time got more precarious, until he’d be in the hall right near the door and we’d try to dance across the room before he entered the room. Our dancing only got worse the more rushed we felt.”

“And she was still ignoring you?” 

“Yes, and then one day my father calls Amalia and I into his study. Now, we were not allowed in his study unless we were having a very serious discussion. This normally meant we were in trouble. To lighten the mood we danced all the way to the door, but we knew we were done for. When we get there, he’s sitting at his desk all somber, and tells us that we have disobeyed him, and that he’d like not to punish us, so we must punish ourselves. Sibylle told on us! And father was making us choose our own punishment!”

Anne’s eyes go comically wide, “No way! What’d you pick?”

Anna smiles an amused smile, “We said we’d take our math lessons away from ourselves for two weeks. Learning was a privilege, or so he said. We hated math, so it was really a winning situation.”

Catalina laughs at that, “Wow. Just, wow.”

They went on the rest of the night telling stories from their childhoods. Anna realizes by the end of it that she feels so much better, and not just because she’s drunk. It’s because she remembered her home with fondness, not her usual sadness that accompanies her homesickness. Telling that story really did help her. Talking to her family, the one in this life, now, helped her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wine nights are sacred. 
> 
> You may have noticed already, but I’m a history nerd. Her sisters were real, and they actually weren’t allowed to do anything artistic because their family preferred to educate them traditionally. She actually had nothing to talk about with hernrat because she didn’t have any artistic inclinations, and henrat enjoyed art too much to let that slide.
> 
> Leave a comment!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So this one addresses Kat’s past and Anna’s reaction. Rape/non-con has been added to the tags because of it, but I don’t go too in detail.

Kitty is having a bad day, that much is plain to see. Their shared therapist, Marie, (Excluding Catalina who now attends a therapy better suited for her.) had come in today. And Kitty hadn’t slept the night before because she kept waking up from bad dreams.  _ And  _ she had a cold. Anna felt bad for the girl, she’s not been her usual bouncy self all day, and after their therapist left she’s been acting basically somber enough to affect the energy of the whole house. She’s in her room now because Jane and Catalina were near as she had a sneezing attack and sent her to rest. There's an occasional sniffle coming from upstairs, likely from the stuffy nose. 

Anna finishes up in the kitchen, she’s been making soup for Kitty. Then she carefully sets it on a tray along with a cup of water and a cup of tea. She’s bringing both, just in case Kitty wants either. 

“Anna, will you bring Kitty this please?” Jane hands her two pills, DayQuil, looks like. Anna agrees to do so and makes her way upstairs, careful not to spill the soup.

She pushes the door open softly, “Room service! … Kit?” The girl is not in her room. She hears the connected bathtub running, and soft sniffles. They sound an awful lot like crying sniffles now that she’s next to them. She walks over to the bathroom door, the bathroom is in between hers and Catalina’s room, they share it. 

“Kitty?” She listens for a response in the relative quiet, only hearing the running water. 

“Yes?” It’s very quiet, and Anna grows more concerned at this.

“You feeling any better?” She’s just met with a sob in response.

Her concern grows into alarm, “Can I come in?”

“... Give me a minute.” She’s willing to see her, so she can’t be too bad, Anna reasons to herself. It’s flawed reasoning, but it’s enough to quell her thoughts of panic for now.

She waits a bit, and there's some shuffling around, and then the door opens. Behind the girl, the tub is half full, and has bubbles in it. There are several towels around the floor. The girl in front of her is red, from her eyes to her skin. She was clearly just in a blistering hot bath, and there are several scratches on places like her wrists and chest. Wearing just a tank top and sweats, Anna can see where Kitty has violently scrubbed her skin raw.

“Shit, Kitty. Was the bath hot enough for you?” She jokes. She doesn’t want her to feel like Anna was scrutinizing her at all, she wants her to feel comfortable. Kitty seems to understand what Anna is trying to do, and laughs a bit. Then, after a beat, she throws herself into Anna’s arms. Anna was quick to hold her, she feels the girl cry into her neck and feels her panic come back. She leads Kitty over to the window seat and sits, still holding her close.

After a while Kitty pulls away and apologizes, Anna blanches. But Kitty is quick to start up again.

“No, I really shouldn’t have done that. I’m contagious.”

“What’s wrong?” She asks, and Kitty seems to consider the question for a moment. 

“What do you know about me? From before I married Henry I mean.” Anna finds the answer a bit strange, but plays along.

“Not much, I know that you stayed with your grandmother for a bit. She ran a school, right?” At that Kitty nods, so Anna keeps going, “And, and you were my lady in waiting. And… You liked horses? Even though you didn’t know how to ride.”

Kitty smiles at that, “I liked talking care of them. My step grandma had a few and I used to feed them sometimes.” Anna grins at the thought of little Kat feeding a horse, but then remembers why she’s here.

“What’s that got to do with why you were crying?”

Kitty’s smile immediately wipes from her face. “Can I tell you something?”

“Anything.” She means it. Anna says it with such conviction that Kitty can’t doubt it. 

“When I lived with my step grandma, she had someone who worked for her, his name was Francis.” She swallows before continuing again. “I was still young, I didn’t know any better.” Her tears start up again, and Anna doesn’t like where this is going.

“I thought he liked me. And he did, but just my body, not me personally. He hurt me, and when she found out she blamed me and my father sent me away, that's when I joined the court, and when I met you.” 

Anna isn’t even sure how to respond, she doesn’t know how to comfort her with this. Her mind flicks to the scratches and redness on her skin. The bathtub, her cries, the nightmares, Kitty not liking to be touched without knowing it's coming. It all makes sense now. Kitty seems to see her make the connections.

“Please don’t judge me, I should have known better after- I mean, I mean I hope you don’t think of me differently. Sorry I didn’t tell you before! And I was talking to Marie and she said I should talk about it with you all but I didn’t even know where to start.”

Kitty keeps talking, but Anna can't hear her. She’s remembering Kitty’s beheading. She’d been beheaded for lying about her virginity, and for cheating. She remembers Thomas’s trial, had he-? She remembers Kitty saying the advances from the men of her past were unwanted, but everyone thought she was trying to save her head. 

Anna should have done something, if she’d gotten there faster, if she’d stayed with the king, if she’d protected her friend more-

“Anna? Are you okay?” Kitty breaks Anna out of her thoughts. She looks up from where her eyes drifted to her lap, and sees a teary eyed Kitty looking at her with concern. That’s not right.

“I’m so sorry.” Is the first thing to be able to leave her mouth. She's sorry, she’s also angry. How dare those men touch a child that way?

Kitty reels backward, “What on earth are you sorry for?”

“I should have done something! I should have tried harder to help when-“ She can't finish that sentence. Kitty shakes her head.

“There was nothing you could have done Anna.  _ Anna _ , look at me,  _ there was nothing you, or I, could have done. _ That was my fate, I lost my head, yes, but that blood is not on your hands.”

Anna looks at this girl, really a woman, considering the wisdom and experience she holds, and thinks to herself not for the first time that she wished it could have been her instead. But this is not about Anna.

“Okay.” She says numbly.

“Okay?” Kitty looks confused.

“Okay. You don’t need me to fall apart on your behalf. Do you want to talk about it?” She can't keep the emotion out of her voice as she speaks, but her intention to help Kitty is clear enough. Kitty looks at her for a long moment before deciding.

“I think, I think I do, actually. Can we do this downstairs though? I’d like for the others to hear as well.” Anna checks to make sure she’s really comfortable with that before agreeing. Then she remembers the soup.

“Oh! I brought you soup and tea! Also some medicine from Jane.” Her gaze moves to the bowl, untouched, “It’s probably cold now, but I also brought water, so you can take the medicine with that.” She gestures to the table which she has set the tray on and watches Kitty comply. Then she grabs the tray and heads downstairs.

“The thought was very nice. Thank you.” Kitty says as she makes her way down the stairs, Anna in tow.

When they get downstairs, Kitty makes herself a sandwich, and then she grabs all the necessities for a wine night. It’s Wednesday, but whatever makes her feel more comfortable sharing, Anna thinks. She also lets the thought that teens in this century aren’t actually allowed to drink alcohol pass through her mind. Oh well. She helps Kitty grab everything they need and gets the others.

“Kitty, you shouldn’t be drinking wine while you're sick- Oh my god, you look awful. What happened?” Anne enters the room to see swollen eyed Kitty with a sandwich and glass of wine, still red and scratched up from her bath, sitting on the couch. The question gets the others in the room even faster than they were already moving.

It’s going to be a long night. But, Anna thinks, they can probably handle it together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we have Kat being strong with her family by her side, Anna is still a sad bby but it’s okay she believes in her family!!
> 
> Ley me know what you think! I know I didn’t put all of it in, but this series is really about their support of one another, and how they’re feeling based on that. Plus, we know what happened, no need to give you a written rendition of it. Anna has survivors guilt that gets worse the more she learns about what happened with the other queens. But as supportive as she is she also has their support!!


	4. Chapter 4

It's a little known fact, but a fact nonetheless, that Anna had actually wanted children in her past life. Of course she couldn’t have that, but she dreamt of it often. When she agreed to annul her marriage to Henry she’d also agreed that she was pre contracted to marry another man in the past. Now, that was a bunch of bull and everyone knew it, but it was an excuse to get out of their marriage cleanly. So they’d both agreed to take it. She signed the paper saying her marriage wasn’t valid because she was technically unavailable to marry. It effectively made her unwed-able, so she remained unmarried until the day she died. 

She remained close with her ex step children, but she was more of an aunt or friend than mother. Which was fine, really it was, because she loved those kids more than anything, and she would have been whoever she needed to be to them in order to be a part of their lives. She had her relationships with them, and a few friends she’d made since moving to England, and it should have been enough. But still she was lonely. She had frequent dreams of children playing in her garden. Children running through her halls. Children painting or writing or doing their schoolwork or working in the court because she could get them there. She didn't want a husband, men had been very disappointing so far. She’d wanted children.

She got a dog.

Several dogs, actually. Hunting hounds, lap dogs, show dogs, the list goes on. She loved them like they were her own children. Took great care that they were all fed properly and exercised, had them taken care of when she was away. They even had the best materials for their collars and clothes. She treated those dogs well, she misses them today. They were family, after all. She misses her family very much. 

She’d like to get a dog now, she’s sure that with the amount of trauma and hurt in this house they could use one for at least comfort. Unfortunately, Cathy is afraid of dogs. Apparently seeing the strays eat Henry’s remains after he exploded made her stomach churn from that point on near dogs.

(“ _ He exploded!”  _ Anne shrieked. To say that the group was shocked was an understatement. Anne herself had delight mixed in with her shock though, which is a bit funny if you think about it.

“Anne! Have you no tact? It was his corpse! Be a little less enthusiastic.” Catalina scolded the woman. Then she turned back to Cathy, who had just let that fact slip as she was explaining why she doesn’t like dogs, “He exploded?” She questions, a lot calmer than the first woman, but she couldn’t keep the morbid curiosity covering her slight amusement. Maybe Anna should have mentioned this sooner. Then those two would have something to bond over.

Cathy looks a little sick, “Well, yes.” She says, “It was gas build up, he was in his casket, then, splat, all over the place.”

Jane also looks a little pale at the imagery, “Oh dear.”

Anna then cuts in, helpfully, “Yes, and then the stray dogs in the area cleaned it up.” 

“Lord, I might be sick.” Cathy leaves, followed by Kitty holding Cath’s hair back as she goes.

Suffice to say, they all agreed on no dogs.)

But Anna mentioned that she wanted a dog to their therapist, who then gave her an even better idea. What if she got an emotional support dog? Cathy can’t possibly say no to that! So here she is, researching the best, most gentle, calm and small dogs to be emotional support animals. She’s even making a powerpoint. It’s all directed at Cathy, since she was the only one opposed to getting one. Everyone else had generally agreed to it until Cathy threw up. She finishes up her PowerPoint in about a half hour, (What, like it's hard to find reasons why dogs are great?) and makes her way to the living room, laptop in hand.

“Alright, attention everyone! I have a presentation!” She yells, and the other queens, who are about seven feet away on the couch, jump at the volume. She connects her laptop to the TV and begins.

“Hey! I was watching that!” Complains Anne. 

Anna just continues, “This is more important. Emotional support animals! What do you know about them?”

“Is this a PowerPoint? Why are you doing a PowerPoint?”

“I love PowerPoint! It’s so cool!”

“We know that, mija.” Lina responds to Kitty. Kitty does love PowerPoint. They’re not sure why, either. But the girl makes powerpoints about things she’s learned for fun, sometimes showing the others and teaching them.

Anna groans in frustration, “Guys, please answer the question.” She begs.

Jane is the one to give in, “I personally don't know anything about emotional support animals,” she placates, “Why? What are they?”

Anna smiles; yes, back on track. 

“Well Jane, it's an animal that emotionally supports you! Exactly what we need, wouldn’t you agree?”

There’s some hesitation from the queen’s side, so Anna is quick to continue, “This is a list of the nicest, smallest, calmest,  _ non threatening  _ dogs that would be good as emotional support animals.”

“Anna, you know we can’t get a dog. Cathy can’t handle it.”

Cathy herself seems a bit lost in thought, she hasn’t said anything since Anna put on the PowerPoint. This is to convince Cathy though, so Anna won’t give up until she hears a no from the woman. She goes through the list, and tries her best to be enthusiastic as she explains the qualities of each one. It’s a little hard to keep up the energy though, because every time she glances at Cathy, she looks more and more uncomfortable.

As she brings her presentation to a close, she looks again over at Cathy to get her answer. “So? Which dog did you like the best?”

Cathy looks very much like she’d rather be anywhere else right now, which totally isn’t fair because it makes Anna feel very guilty.

“Um, none of them?” As soon as she says it she looks slightly panicked though, “Sorry! I’m sorry, I wish I could just get over it so you could get your dog. I’ll work on it.” She looks so upset that she can’t give Anna what she wants, so Anna immediately feels awful.

“That's okay, it was worth a shot.” After more reassurance to Cathy that she is not in trouble for having her own opinion, Anna makes her way back to her room with her laptop. It really was worth a shot, and she’s not mad at Cathy for her fear. She just misses her companions, she’d like someone to take care of. Having a baby doesn’t seem very possible in this life either. 

-

The next week goes by normally, everything seems normal at least. Until today. Jane went out with Lina and Cathy, and it seems that Anne and Kitty are supposed to be distracting Anna.

“This show is boring, lets watch Wrestlemania.” Anne says. She found Wrestlemania by accident a few weeks ago and it’s been on the TV since.

“No, we need a break from that. Lets watch house hunters.” Kitty suggests from Anna’s right.

“But I like this show!” Anna complains, she put on the bachelor and not even halfway through one episode they’re trying to change it on her. Anne is about to respond, no doubt to advocate for her glorified violence, when the front door opens. They all look over to see the Catherine’s and Jane lugging in a ton of stuff. Anna gets up to help, but sees something that makes her stop completely.

A pet carrier. It’s quite small, whatever it is is tiny. The animal inside must be white, because she can see a bit of fur through the side.

“Whatcha got there?” She questions Jane, the one holding the pet carrier.

“A present.” 

“For who?”

“All of us, but you, mainly.” Jane sets down the pet carrier and opens the door. 

And out comes the fluffiest kitten Anna has ever seen in her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, fun fact, Henry exploded in his casket and stray dogs cleaned it up. Gross.
> 
> And Kitty’s thing she loves in the modern century is PowerPoint! Its easy to remember stuff when she makes a presentation about it.
> 
> What should they name the Kitten?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! The last chapter of Anna’s part. It’s been fun giving ya’ll the Anna content you deserve.

It’s a group therapy day, they all attend these. Even Catalina, who Anna just found out hates their shared therapist and that was her main reasoning for switching therapies. Once a month, Marie will gather them all into the living room to talk their feelings out with the others. Anna never usually says much during these; she doesn’t really need to, in her own opinion. 

Anna has the new Kitten in her lap, (They’ve named her Queen Bea, just Bea for short.) she’s asleep. She's running her hand through his fur, left, right, left, right.

Currently, they’re talking about what happened with Kitty three days ago.

“You were right, I did feel better after talking to them about it.”

“Being open with your support system is important, I’m proud of you!” Marie is perky and sweet, Anna doesn’t understand Catalina’s dislike.

“But I did want to talk about something else, maybe this is a good time.” Kitty says, suddenly she seems very nervous. Anna, and the rest of the room, grows concerned immediately.  _ Left, right, left , right. _

“What would that be?” Marie seems calm, how can she be calm knowing that Kitty could say anything right now?

“Well, when I was telling Anna about all that stuff that happened to me, it seemed like she blamed herself. I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page here.”

_ What? _

“That is called survivor's guilt, and it is something Anna and I are working on in her private sessions. Anna, what would you like to say in response to Kitty’s concern?”

_ Left, right, left, right. _ “I’m fine, it was just a shock.” Just a shock, yes.  _ Left, right, left- _

“Anna, you do know there was nothing you could have done to help any of us, right?” This comes from Jane, who’s death Anna knows she shouldn’t feel guilt over. She can’t help but feel she didn’t deserve the out she got, when all the others had it so rough.

“I know.”  _ Left, right. _

“Anna…” 

_ Left, right. _

“I know.”  _ Left. _

“I don’t know if I believe you.” Anne responds. 

“Well, you don’t have to, because I know I do.” She does know, she completely understands that there was nothing she could have done. Logically it makes no sense to even feel guilt over things that happened when you were nowhere near to help. She couldn’t have done anything. She wishes she could have though.  _ Right, left. _

“You may understand it, but it doesn’t mean you don’t feel it. It’s a natural reaction. You can talk to them, they want to help you.” Normally she appreciates Marie’s advice. She doesn’t need the help though, that's the problem. Her problem is that what she feels is nothing compared to what the others feel. Why can’t they understand that? The kitten is still asleep in her lap,  _ right, left, right. _

“Anna, please talk to us, mija.” Catalina looks worried, though Anna for the life of her can’t figure out why.

_ Left. _ She feels like she’s going to cry.  _ Right. _ Why are they looking at her like that?  _ Left. _ They shouldn’t be worried about her, she’s fine. She’s fine, she’s fine, she’s fine.

“Oh, dear. Anna, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”  _ Right. _

Bea wakes up when Anna lets out a quiet sob, and runs away. Anna breaks down.

Immediately, they all jump into action. Kitty is by her side in a second, rubbing her back soothingly.  _ Up, down, up, down.  _ Anne is on her other side, telling her that it’s okay to cry, that she cries all the time, so really she’s glad someone else is doing it because now they can be crying buddies.  _ Up, down, up, down.  _ Jane hands her a glass of water. She did that for Kitty the first night after they all agreed to help each other, that seems so long ago now.  _ Up, down, up, down.  _ She feels something being placed around her shoulders, her blanket, she realizes. Catalina got her blanket for her.  _ Up, down, up, down.  _ Cathy sits in front of her on the floor and waits for her to calm down a bit before speaking.

“I get it,” she says, quietly. “It’s like, you made it out. What did you do that they didn’t? I know I didn’t deserve to live any more than they did.” Kitty goes to interrupt her and defend Cathy’s right to live, but Cathy just continues over her.  _ Up, down. _

“It’s not logical, right? You know it makes no sense. But,  _ if you’d done something, if you’d fought harder, if you’d been there. _ I know. And then it's like, why should they all be helping me? They need it more. Trust me when I say I get it.” Anna does trust her, because it seems like she knows  _ exactly  _ what this feels like.

“But, you went through things too, Anna. I’m not gonna be a hypocrite and tell you that you shouldn’t feel those things, but I can tell you that you should let us help you. We want to help you.”  _ Up, down, up, down. _

Anna thinks this over. They want to help her. Help her with what? She glances at their therapist, who looks very happy to see their support system in action. She seems content to let them handle this.  _ Up, down, up, down.  _ She fidgets with her blanket a bit. Maybe she does need help. She can’t keep crying like this, holding it in until she breaks down isn’t really a fair way to go about things, for herself or for the others. And her blanket is great, but talking everything out might make dealing a bit easier. Maybe she can sort her thoughts out if she says them out loud. It can’t hurt, at least.

“Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, I chose Bea. Congrats to the person who recommended that, can’t remember who it was. Anna will be okay! Cathy is next.

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, she’s a little sad. But thats the theme, I guess.
> 
> Anxious Jane made an appearance! As well as C(K)atherine softness, because why not. And now the mystery behind Anna’s blanket is revealed!!
> 
> Also, I know Steven Universe is dead but a girl can dream.
> 
> Leave a comment, let me know what you think! I love hearing your feedback and try my best to reply to all of them.


End file.
